4 posts tagged “family”
It's typical... it's cliche... and I love it.
Family on the Fourth.
Hey, if you want edgy... go read something else.
One recent lesson starts like this: Kids have moods for the same reason we all do. Because sometimes you just are in a mood.
That's not really the lesson, however.
That begins with the notion that kids are acting up because of you. They want attention or they are being grumpy or taciturn because it's aimed at you. Of course, that's because many of us fall into the trap that kids are an extension of us. Their moods reflect on own ability to govern them, manage them, socialize them.
Wrong. Move that ego trip to the side daddy-o.
Sometimes they are sad because, well, they're sad. Sometimes they complain because they feel unsettled. Like we all do. We fail to see that when we're letting the ego rule.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you don't need to address how they exhibit these moods. We all have to learn that and we can't jettison that role (unless you want wild animals for kids).
But, man, does that ego get in the way of assessing what's going on with the kiddie ... and, boy, does it allow emotion to replace reason. And it also saps away any empathy for the little tyke who is just trying to figure things out.
The girl at three and a half refuses to see limits. Parents try to set deadlines for eating, bathing, sleeping.
They warn her how the brick she's holding in her small hand might smash her toes
But the girl unbounded will not yield.
Watch her go down a flight of stairs. Her arms flail and her legs pop. She leads with her head. Her shins have bruises from flinging her body on outdoor metal furniture or basement walls.
No one will keep the spirit down. No one.
You can watch her and feel envious - she has no fear. And yet, it exasperates you. I mean how do you push back the wind?
She will find what she's looking for. And she will simply refuse to see a reason to oppose the urge that thrusts her forward.
"But I want it," she says, and she means it. A few days ago, she was told that she'll lose
T.V. if she didn't listen.
"I don't want T.V.," she said. Who would argue with the force of those words.
I'm not up to the task.
Sure, the power comes from a child's mind that vaguely knows it really doesn't have the answers. And, yes, she's still too young to know of limits, of fences, of rules.
Yet that power also brings with it this unbridled sense of joy - the kind that makes us yearn to be near a child. And you want somehow to keep that kernal of desire burning like a red hot coal as her body and brain matures ... the bruises go away ... her stride is controlled.
Some of them carried a message. None were subtle.
Just in case the Obamacons or Obamites or Obam-bams (or whatever they're called) think they'll have a cakewalk this November, remember the red side
And now for the "avert-your-eyes-if-easily-offended" alert.
There was plenty of the who is more macho sentiment flowing at the car show. From the garb to the slogans on said garb. And there were plenty of devils or skeletons with middle fingers raised.
But the tail-end of this car below truly wanted to convey the spirit of,well, testosterone. If there were a doctor in the house, surely he would have made the vehicle cough, no
And just for kicks, one more shot of the kid in the gleam of the day. Honestly, for all the excess, the two of us did have a pretty good bonding moment.
